7. How The Brain Works

If we are to really understand how to invent anything, we need to go
back to basics in thinking as well as in science—and that means
understanding something about how the brain works. Thinking about that
blob of grey matter inside your skull can be rather disconcerting, but
we will not be side-tracked by metaphysical debate; if you have private
views on spirituality, we will not be challenging them. Suffice it to
say that if there is a human spirit that inhabits or constitutes our
minds, it is way beyond the simple science of synaptic connections.

If we were to present our descriptions of the brain to experts, whether
they were brain surgeons or psychologists, there would be many
challenges, particularly of the kind “but it is much more complex than
that!” But we are not trying to get you to be brain surgeons or
psychologists. We are describing the brain in a simple way so that you
can hopefully understand enough about how it works to use is in
different ways for different purposes. Even if all you do is realise
that you can change how you are thinking and move from focusing-in to
crazily-creative and back again, and do this with a sense of purpose
then we will have achieved our purpose. It is your machine so use it!